THE 

VICKSBURG 
CAMPAIGN 

AND 

REMINISCENCES 



•BY- 



CAPT. J. J. KELLOGG 



FROM 



"MILLIKEN'S BEND" TO 
JULY 4, 1863. 



I 9 I 3 




OTapt, j\, % ^M\^n 



WAR EXPERIENCES 



And the Story of 



The Vicksburg Campaign 



From 



"Milliken's Bend" to July 4, 
1863 



Bein^ an accurate and graphic account of 
Campaign Events taken from the diary of 



CAPT. J. J. KELLOGG 



Of Co. B, 113th Illinois Volunteer Infantry 






COPYRIGHTED BY 

CAPT. J. J. KELLOGG 

3 1) 1 3 



©CI.A343800 



THE DAY WE STARTED 
EOR WAR. 



Kecollections of Captain J. J. Kellogg. 



The day we left home for the war was an event- 
ful one, and the Incidents crowded into that day will 
never be effaced from my memory. 

There was a rally that afternoon, upon which 
occasion we added some important nameis to our 
company roll. Some of the boys who then enlisted 
in our ranks were prominent in our local society 
and passed current in the ranks of our best young 
people. Others came out of their obscurity for the 
first time on that occasion, and were first known 
and noticed on the day of their enlistment. I had 
never intimately known Isaac Haywood, who wias af- 
terwards my bunkmate, until that day. I first made 
the acquaintance of Tom Wilson then, but it would 
require too much space to name all the comrades 
I then met. And when the great struggle finally 
ended, how few of those fair-haired, bright-eyed 
boys were permitted to return to their old homes. 
Only a small squadron of lithe-limbedi, bronze- 
faced fellows came back. I loved Ike Haywood on 
sight. I think I was mainly attracted towards Ike 
because of his eccentric ways, odd manner of speech 



4 THE DAY WE STARTED FOR WAR 

and his wonderful good nature. Dame Nature had 
gotten Ike up without especial regard to good looks, 
but had braced, propped and generally supported his 
irregular features with wonderful bones and sinews, 
all contained in a close knit wrapper of inflexible 
cord ond muscle. Like other unusually powerful 
men, Ike was usually the very soul of good nature; 
but when fully aroused and forced on the aggres- 
sive he was known and acknowledged to be a holy 
terror. He had long powerful arms and hands, 
broad shoulders, thick neck, surmounted by a bul- 
let-shaped head with small ears. He had thin red 
hair, faded red mustache, was squint-eyed and wore 
a half smille on his peach blossom face, and his un- 
der lip sort of slouched down at one end. He looked 
funny at all times, but more particulars^ was he 
comical when he tried to be in sober earnest. 

Tom Wilson, on the contrary, was a handsome 
boy and a school teacher by profession, but I can't 
waste time and space in extended personal descrip- 
tions of my comrades. 

The war excitement had fully aroused the pa- 
triotic citizens of our city, and the simple message 
which the gallant Major Anderson had sent under 
the first flag of truce to Governer Pickens at Char- 
leston in which be asked, "Why have you fired 
upon the flag of m.y country?" found an echo in 
every loyal beairt, and we young men found ourselves 
asking in fierce, hot whispers, "Why have you fire'd 
on the flag of my country?" 

The fragment of a company had already been 
enlisted there and forwarded to camp at Cairo, and 



THE DAY WE STARTED FOR WAR o 

that day the citizens liad made a supreme effort to 
fill its ranks at least to the minimum. I can de- 
scribe but faintly the patriotic turmoil of that day. 
I only remember that along every highway leading 
into town came overloaded vehicles in apparently un- 
ending procession, bearing their burden of human 
freight. Flags fluttered from windows, and business 
fronts were swathed with patriotic bunting. The thun- 
dering discharge of an old anvil seemed to jar the 
universe at each discharge. At stated intervals the 
brass band also played loudly and harshly from the 
band stand, and the recruiting squad paraded the 
streets with fife and drum. A reverend gentleman 
spoke at the city hall, and as he waxed warm and 
eloquent, more than a score of men walked up to 
the desk and signed the enlistment rolls. 

Tom and Ike and I subscribied our namies om the 
roll together. When Tom Wilson got up and de- 
clared his intention to enlist everybody cheered 
vociferously. In the little speech he mad,e with 
trembling voice he reminded his friends that he 
must surrender to their care his aged and helpless 
mother during his absence. Thiat she gave her 
husband and his father to the country in the Mexican 
war, and he had hoped the privilege would have 
been accorded him to tenderly care for her in the 
decline of her life, and that he was the only slender 
reed she had to lean upon in the world, etc., etc. 
Ike and I followed Tom, and in turn several others 
followed us. The crowd yelled and cheered them- 
selves hoarse, and coming forward irrespective of 
rank or social position,, coTdially shook our hands and 



THE DAY WE STARTED FOR WAR 



spoke encouraging words to us. When the rally 
ended we had our full complement of men, and were 
ordered to be ready to go to the front when our 
train which had been ordered should arrive that 
night. 

In the evening the citizens gave us a farewell 
banquet with an interesting program. A glee club 
sang partiotic songs; a student of the high school 
declaimed "The Charge of the Light Brigade"; a 
Mexican war veteran volunteered suggestions as to 
the best means and methods of avoiding camp di- 
seases in active military service, and as to the best 
and most approved treatment of severed arteries, 
fractured limbs and contused heads. An old Miss- 
issippi steamboat captain with a glow of ripe cherry 
mantling his cheeks and nose, spoke at some length 
recommending whiskey and quinine if obtainable, 
but whiskey anyhow for river and swamp fevers, 
and gunpowder and whiskey for weak knees. Though 
strongly urged, neither Tom Wilson nor myself 
spoke, but Ike couldn't excuse himself satisfactor- 
ily when isiolicited, and though greatly against his 
inclination, he was fairly lifted to his feet by his 
new comradeis, and as nearly as I can remember said 
substantially, as follows: 

"Feller citizens, the time has arrove when every 
galloot that cares a tinker's darn for the Union 
orter go to the front. I'm goin' fer one. I haint 
got much book larn'n but I reckon I can soon larn 
to cock a cannon or lug a musket 'round and in this 
racket, I b'leve I've got edication 'nuf to know which 
way to shute. I never have ranked very high in 



THE DAY WE STARTED FOR WAR 



this community, and don't 'spect to get much high- 
er than a brigadier in this war, but I'm goin' to 
help our fellers drive them rebels from pillar to 
post, and if necessary drive 'em right into the post, 
but what we git 'em b'gosh. This supper you wom- 
en have given us was luscious, and I b'leve I shall 
taste it clear through the war. I want to bid all the 
folks and more specially you fellers who could go 
to the war just as well ais not and won't, goodbye. If 
yer ever tackled in the rear while we're down there 
in the front, let us know and we'll come up and help 
you through." 

At the conclusion of the banquet exercises, each 
newly enlisted man hurried away from the hall to 
arrange for his departue. The families and friends 
of those living at a distance, were nearly all in 
town to witness the departure of friends and loved 
ones. The streets of the town were crowded with 
excited citizens and visitors. There was the faithful 
mother with tearful eye® and blanched cheeks cling- 
ing to the arm of her soldier boy and bravely strug- 
gling to calm the throbbings of her aching heart. 
The sad eyed father and sorrowing brothers and 
and sisters were standing near, each vainly trying to 
say encouraging words. A group of half tipsy re- 
cruits joked and laughed and sang snatches of patri- 
otic songis with thick and wobbling tongues. Acrosis 
the street in the shadow of the maples, a boy and girl 
paced to and fro with slow and measured steps. Maybie 
afterwards that girl when her hair was frosted with 
age remembered that last promenade with bitter 
tears, and again maybe the grim old war kindly gave 



8 THE DAY WE STARTED FOR WAR 

back to her at the last her boy, lithe-limbed bat 
bronzed by the sulphurous breath of battle. 

I saw Tom Wilson hurry home after the ban- 
quet, and 1 knew he had gone to stay with his old 
mother and assist her in preparing his meagre be- 
longings for departure, and 1 knew what the agony of 
that parting would be when the supreme minute 
of departure actually came. And when I called 
for him on my way to the depot, I saw him unclasp 
her loving arms from his neck and lay her almost un- 
conscious form tenderly upon the lounge. He kissed 
her pale lips, and with a great sob hurried out across 
the threshhold of his humble home. At the gate 
we met Mrs. Haywood, who, having bade her own 
son goodbye, was making her way to the Wilson 
home to try and comfort and be comforted in their 
common sorrow. We bade Mrs. Haywood a tender 
farewell, and we promised to watch over her boy 
through the days of his absence, and she in turn 
assured Tom that she would care for and protect 
his dear old mother to the best of her ability. When 
Mrs. Haywood had passed into the house, Tom turn- 
ed and watched the window anxiously until he saw 
again the dear old face with its straggling gray 
lo€ks framed there, and then with our modest bun- 
dles under our arms and hats drawn down over 
our flushed, sad faces, we went slowly down to the 
depot. And when almost to the depot, Tom could 
still see that winodw with its precious living pic- 
ture. With streaming eyes she had watched him 
drifting out of her life. Tom was her only child. 
He was all she had on earth to cling to and love. 



■ THE DAY WE STARTED FOR WAR 9 

For many years his meager earning had supporteri 
the home. Ever since the death of his father the 
boy had been her idol. And now in her old age, not 
only was she to be deprived of his presence and 
companionship, but also of the simple little income 
his labor had produced. And she at last saw her 
darling drifting away from the shores of her simple 
life out into the blue depths of the Union army, may- 
be never to return. She had given the country 
the father, now the country had taken the only son. 
The measure of her sacrifices was more than full 
and almost more than sh6 could bear. 

Arriving at the depot, many farewells were said 
to us by both friends and strangers, as the proces- 
sions of men, women and children swept along the 
platform ere the coming of our train. The queenly 
Miss Frankie Bell, whom we young fellows had al- 
ways considered with her wealth and beauty too 
high and mighty to ever deign to notice one of us 
common fellows., a-ctually sobbed when she presisied 
our hands, and pledged poor Tom Wilson that his aged 
m.other should be her especial charge during his ab- 
sence and should want for no comfort which her means 
could obtain. And when I saw the glad look her as- 
surances had brought out on Tom's face, and knew 
so well her ability to do all she promised, she 
all at once became in my estimation the grandest 
and most angelic woman I had ever beheld. And 
at last the low rumble of our train was heard in 
the distance, and the click of the strumming rails 
warned the anxious waiting friends that the final 
farewells were now in order and must be said 



10 THE DAY WE STARTED FOR WAR 



quickly. Ike at the last moment appeared upon 
the scene, actually staggering under his great load 
of boxes and bundles. He was sweating and puff- 
ing like a porpoise, and said as he came up to us, 
in his usually droll way. "Got a few things here 
mother fixed up for us to chaw on the way down 
to war." 

We had to laugh at him. On his shoulder he 
carried a dry goods box crammed full. From 
his waist belt dangled an old battered coffee pot 
and cracked skillet. In his left had he carried a 
mammoth clofth siatchel wadded so full that ghast- 
ly stumps of a roast turkey were protruding from its 
gaping mouth. To the smiling bystander he said 
with a comical squint, "The feller who won't pro- 
vide for his own household is wus than an infidel, 
b'gosh." It was plain to be seen that Ike had fully 
anticipated and provided for his most pressing wants 
during our trip to the front. As the train came 
wheezing up to the platform, the perfect show- 
er of goodbyes, farewells. Godspeeds and kisses, 
hugs and hand pressures were hastily enacted, thp 
locomotive tolled mournfully for a brief space, the 
conductor shouted, "All aboard," the engine began 
to wheeze and cough, and the train crawled slowly 
away into the shadows of the night. The citizens 
cheered the vanishing cars, and we sent back an 
answering cheer, whdch hardly rose above the rum- 
ble of the receding train. We watched the lights 
of the old home town until they were finally quench- 
ed in the thick midnight gloom, as we were whirled 
away toward the scene of conflict. We were des- 



THE DAY WE STARTED FOR WAR 11 



tined for Cairo, where the other part of our company 
awaited us. When we had gotten out beyond the 
limits of the old home town we suffered a reaction, 
and those who had so recently wept now talked and 
laughed excitedly. The long fa-ces began to broaden, 
and the compressed lips curl into smiles. Some one 
led off with "John Brown's Body, etc., etc." and by 
the time they got his body mouldering in the grave 
everybody was singing and they s'ang hysterically and 
wildly. 

When all had howled themselves hoarse, they 
raided their well-filled lunch baskets and ate like 
famished wolves, notwithstanding the fact that every 
soul of them had been crammed and wadded with 
food at the banquet that evening. If the motheiris 
and friends of those boys could have seen them in 
their wild carousal they would have thought them 
heartless and dissembling wretches but such judg- 
ment would have been wholly unjust. This line of 
action was the result of the relaxation of the over 
wrought nerves and muscles. Every old veteran of 
the civil war will recall many occasions where the 
relaxation of overwrought nerves made him act 
very foolishly. 

The effect of that hour of final leave taking up- 
on the depot platform upon our boys was not wholly 
unlike that afterwards* sustained on the battle liae 
juist preparatoTy to an engagement, when an oc- 
casional double leaded miessage jarred the sensitive 
membrane of a fellow's ears as it scooted by with a 
cold hiss or a shell shrieking and seething in its mad 
flight through the upper air; such occasions not only 



12 THE DAY WE STARTED FOR WAR 

try mein's nerves, but tbey try men's souilis. Fimailly 
thing's settled down and everyone sought repose 
and some manner of rest. I watched from the car 
window, the lights flitting past as the train 
forged steadily ahead. Station after station had 
been passed while we caroused and slept. For 
the men were sprawled out through the coaches 
in every conceivable position, now forgetful in their 
heavy slumber of both home and friends. Late in 
the night a sudden jerk of the engine tumbled me 
off my seat, and this was the first knowledge I 
had that I had actually been asleep. As I rubbed 
my sleepy eyes, I saw the outlines of an angular 
form picking his way towards me, and carefully 
over-stepping the sleeping forms that lay in his 
path. He carried a big satchel, and made manifest 
his mission when sufficiently near me. It was Ike, 
and he opened his remarks by saying "Thought 
't was 'bout timie we foddered up," He lounged down 
beside me. 

"I was taking it pretty comp'table back yonder 
till the durned old engine just yanked me off my 
roost," he said. 

He explored the inside of the old satchel, and 
bro'Uight out a goodly supply of provender. "The 
boys must have sung themselves to sleep," said I 
for want of something better to say. 

"Yes," drawled Ike, as he sliced off two huge 
chunks of roast turkey breast. "They kept John 
Brown's body moulderin' in the grave till it seem- 
ed to me the corpse got mighty stale. I tell ye. 
Jack, we may fetch the rebs down with our mus- 



THE DAY WE STARTED FOR WAR 13 



kets," he continued, "an frighten them with wild 
wlio'ops, but we'll never charm 'em much with our 
sdngin', I reckon," he mused as he busied himself 
spreading our lunch on the opposite seat. 

"I guess the boys had to do something extraord- 
inary to overcome the sad sensations the parting en- 
genidieined," said I. 

"Prob'ble," said Ike, as he bolted a ponderous 
chunk of roast turkey. "I felt 'sldeirable like yelp- 
in' myiseilf, but couldn't see ais 'twould add any- 
thing muich to the iinfernal racket, so I jes hield my 
yelp." 

I partook freely of the tempting lunch thus of- 
fered, and blesisied the careful forethought of Mrs. 
Haywood which had supplied us such a luxury. 
Eating revived my spirits amazingly, and though 
not depiresisitdi by pairting with reilativeis, as my rela- 
tives were all far away, yet I was terribly saddened 
by the goodbye from my best girl. 

"Who knows," said I, "but what the war will 
soon wind up without much more fighting and blood- 
shed and we within a few weeks will go rattling 
back home over this road all safe and sound?" 

"I don't know," said Ike, "mor'n you do, but I 
can't get the igee out of my head thiat we wilil yet see 
some of the dog blastedest fightin' and kiLlin' afore 
we fellers return home that ever jarred the gable 
end of this 'ere universe. I tell you. Jack Kellogg," 
he continued, as he hurriedly imported the lunks, 
chunks and slabs of provender into his capacious 
mouth, "ef ther ain't no blood on the moon fore long 
then my cackalation has jumped a cog. I tell you 



14 THE DAY WE STARTED FOR WAR 

this here thunderin' fuss of ringing bells, blowin' 
whistles, drummin' and fifin' and S'bootin' great 
guns and husselin' a lot of us fellers off down here 
atween two dayis, adnt none of Mns. Winslow's sooth- 
in' syrup, by a gol dumed sight. It all means bloody 
noses an' black eyes, I tell ye, and there'll be va- 
cant cheers 'nuff t' seat a concert hall fore it' all 
done with, I tell ye." 

This was a long speeoh for Ike to make, but he 
made it in such an earnest manner with such im- 
pressive gesture® and vigorous delivery that I was 
greatly impressed with the belief that his statements 
were probably true. 

At many of the stations through which our train 
piajssed straggling soldiers were waiting to go to their 
commands, and boarded our train. And under the 
dim light of the station lamp we saw the weeping 
mother hold her soldier boy close to her achiug 
heart a© they kissed the last long, good-bye kiss. 
Those affecting scenes so often re-enacted before us 
ooutributed in no small degree to intensify the 
solemnity of that hour. At one station standing on 
the depot platform was an ominous looking box, 
and in the few minutes we were delayed there we 
learned from an old gentleman that it contained 
the remains of his boy which he was taking back 
to mother and the old niorthern home for burial. His 
soldier boy had bieen killed in a skirmish with the re- 
beils down in MisisOuri. 

On the evening of the third day from home the 
train which bore our detachment pulled slowly into 
Oairc, In every direction as far as eye oould dis- 



THE DAY WE STARTED FOR WAR 15 

cern, we saw an unbroken blaze of camp fires. An 
ear-splitting din of strange and unusual soundis 
filled the air. Mule drivers were haranguing their 
teams in biliasiphemous ©Hoquiencei, as the pioor creait- 
urets floundered through the bottomless roads, and 
liberally applied the merciless lash to the backs of 
tho&e poor patient, overloaded creatures. The roll 
and beat of drums blended and echoed and swelled, 
fillinig the night with wierd hoarse thunder. Dis- 
tant headquarter bands were concerting noisily, and 
newly arrived commands went 'splashing along the 
muddy highways to soni'e destination beyond the 
line of our viision. Staff officers and orderlies gal- 
loped tbeir smoking steed's Mtbier and yonider at 
wond'erful speed. Black ambulances toiled slowly 
along thie CTOwd'ed tracks wiitJh thieir freight of the 
sick and suffering. Steamboats ablaze with signal 
lights couighed, whistled and wheezed out on the 
dark bosom of the Missisisippi, while the volley of 
bray© from the mule coTr'al smote our ears like 
the concluding blasts of the very last trumpet. 

"The hull United States seems to be goin' to 
roost down beire," ob served Ike aisi he leaned out of 
one of the car windows and observed the situation. 

"Beats' a caimp meeting," ohipped ini somebody 
else. 

"Don't seem to be mucb discipline in thiisi end of 
the army," said another. 

"I reckon they'll have to cheese this racket 
'fore they catch any fish," another remarked. 

And all these and many other comical remarks 
were made by our boys, as they contemplated the 



16 THE DAY WE STARTED FOR WAR 



new situation from the cars and patiently awaited 
orders to go to camp. 

It was indeed a great relief to us when an order- 
ly bestriding a jaded, mud-hespattered horse finally 
rode up and informed us that he would take us to 
oamp. Accordingly we disembarked, fell into line 
and set out for our campiground. 

After a deep wading, tiresome zigzagging along 
miserable roads, devious and uncertain paths and 
blind trails, across sloppy and splashy summer-fal- 
lows, for what seemed an interminable distance, we 
at last reached camp. 

In anticipation of our coming, the camp boyis 
had prepared us a regulation army supper consisiting 
mainly of beans, bacon, rice and hard tack, with the 
usual black coffee accompaniment. No'twithstand- 
ing the rude coarse ratioins, the^ hungry recruits 
laid to anid ate with a wonderful relish and offered 
no excuses. To be sure, as the supper pTogressod, 
many humorous observations were made by the 
boys, touching the kinds and quality of Uncle Sam's 
menu and the manner of its service. Notwithstand- 
inig thie coansie rations offered and the fact that ev- 
ery mothers son of them had been continually gor- 
miandizing ever since we left homie, each did ample 
justice to his first army supper. Haywood discov- 
ered the corpse of a lightning bug embalmed in his 
plate of beams, and another equally as ohserving and 
curious fished the remains of an unknown beetle 
out of his rice. A detachment of daddy long legs 
charged to and fro across the bacon platter, and 
divers bugs and insects swarmed around the sput- 



THE DAY WE STARTED FOR WAR 17 

tering candles. One recruit soaked his hard tack 
in his coffee until it bloated up like a toad, and Ike, 
while wrestling- with a piece of iswine belly, allowed 
he probably "waisin't thie first feller that had had hoilt 
of that." 

"Ike, how do you like the grub?" asked Tom, 
when be had lounged down beside a stump, after 
eating. 

Better'n I 'spected," siaid Ike, "Haint got used 
to them tacks yet, but the pepper'n salt was pass- 
able." 

Then we stowed away our luggage, finding plac- 
es for our traps and boxes, and selecting sleeping 
places. Observing that two blankets could be util- 
ized by two persons bunking together better than 
one bilianket cioul^d seirve ome lone person, tbiey paired 
off and mated up like spring geese. As might nat- 
urally be siupposed, Ike and I bunked together. We 
spread our blankets at the roots of a tree where Hay- 
wood allowed we would be a little above high-water 
mark, and by the time the numerou& regimental 
bands and bugles w^ere sounding tattoo, we were 
well tucked away for the night, and though this 
was an entirely new experien€e to us, we were only 
too glad to stretch ourselves out in the open air 
between twio coarsie army blankets. As we pulled 
the drapery of our couch about us, Ike got a sniff 
of carboliic acid upon our blankets and asked me if 
I "catch ed onto the deathly fragrance of our bed 
clothes." I told him I noticed a peculiaT smell. 

"Smells like a woodpecker's nest," continued 



18 THE DAY WE STARTED FOR WAR 

Ike. "Gueiss they've been packing" limberger clieese 
'r suthin' in 'em. 

"No," said I, "but I suppose the blankets have 
been treated with some preparations of disinfection." 

"Took us fer a lot of lepers, I spose," sa'id Ike. 

"Hardly that," I replied, but I explained to him 
that it was my understanding that all army blankets 
were perfumed in this way for protection against 
mothis and perhaps for sanitary reasons. 

"Prob'ble," Ike murmured drowsily, and his next 
breath was a hoarse snore. 

I was very tired, but could not at on-ce go to 
sleep, and for some time I remained awake amid my 
strange surroundings and looked out into the 
nigto-t and listened to the wild wierd noises of the 
Cfamp. Above me, through the tangle of twigs and vinos 
appeared the starlit sky; the campfiree shone on 
either hand far out into the night, and away over 
th(e fie-MIs anid forests eame the good nig'ht bugle 
calls, the soldier's lullaby, softly siaying "go-to- 
S'leep, go-to-sleep, go-to-sleep, soldier, sleep, go-to- 
sleep." From the mule corral came volley upon 
volley of subdued, tongue-tied braying, and the old 
steamboat engines coughed down at the river land- 
ing. Those strange sounds at last sent me also to 
dreamilanid, but I beilieve my last sleepy thoughts 
were tapping at the window of my old northern 
home. 

I have already related in this article more than 
one day's experience in my war life, unlike what I 
intended to do at the onset, but all is so closely 
linked together that I felt I must add the first 



THE DAY WE STARTED FOR WAR 19 

nigihit in oamp to the arti'cle to make it complete, 
and so I 'have ad died more. 

The reveille on the succeeding morninig brought 
us tired feiliowis out all tJOO' soon. It isieemied thiat 
scarcely tern minuites had eiliapsied since retiring, 
when the wild blasts of bugleisi, jarring drums and 
screaming of fifes aroused us from slumber. Ike 
rolled up onto his elbow and remarked to me, "Them 
fellers out there are jovial cusises, aint they, pound- 
ed their drums and things all times of the night." 
I told him I guessed this was one of the calls. 

"Might hiave waited 'till we got fixed up a little 
fore they oalleid, said Ike!, sitting up on the blank- 
et. "I supposed we come to stay all night," with a 
quieistioning squint at me. 

"No," I told him, "this is a different kind of a 
of a call. The thundering they gave us laist night 
just ais we went to bed was whiat they call tattoo, 
afnid mieiant to go to bed. The few whacks^ of thie drum 
and snorts of the bugle afterwiards meant to put out 
the lights, and this racket means to fall in for roll 
call." 

"Wial, I s>wow," said Ike, pulling on one of his 
boots. "They treat us like a lot of kids, don't 
they? But I say, you don't pretend to imagine if a 
feller should take a cramp 'r some other pain in 
the night, he couldn't strike up a light to find his 
pills nor nothin', do ye?" 

I told him I thought not, because in war times, 
if every soldier was allowed to fire up in the night 
at will the enemy could shoot us just as well as in 
the day time. 



20 THE DAY WE STARTED FOR WAR 

"B'gios'h, tTiere's isemse in that," replied Ike, as 
we fell in for roll calL 

That day we elected our officers. 



CHAPTER I. 



SCENES ENROUTE, 



T was May 7, 1863 when Company B, 113th 

I Illinois Vol. Infantry, to which I belonged, 
started from Milliken's Bend, La., with the 
balance of Grant's army for the rear of 
Vicksburg. That day we marched 14 miles 
and at night camped on a beautiful plan- 
tation and procured raw cotton from a near- 
by gin to sleep on. 

By noon of the 8th we had reached the banks of 
Woody Bayou and halted there for dinner. That 
night we had arrived at the plantation of Confeder- 
ate General Fiske and appropriated some of his 
fresh beef for supper. We made 19 miles that day. 

The 9th we pursued our march along Round- 
away Bayou through a beautiful fertile country -cov- 
ered with vast fields of corn and other crops, and 
splendidly built up. We crossed some streams upon 
pontoon bridges, and saw our first alligators in that 
bayou. We also saw scattered along the roadside 
many dead horses and mules, and passed the smok- 
ing ruins of many plantation buildings. We ate our 
dinner on the grounds of Confederate Judge Per- 
kins. We passed through magnolia groves in full 
bloom, and along miles of blossoming rose hedge; 



2^ SCENES ENROUTE 



beautiful and fragrant beyond description. At night 
we arrived at Lake St. Joseph and camped on its 
shores. All along our route the houses were desert- 
ed by all whites and able bodied colored people, 
only the sick, the aged and decrepit remained. 

On the 10th we continued our march along the 
shores of Lake St. Joseph. Out on the surface of 
the lake numierous old gray-backed alligators lay 
sleeping, amd ever and anon a musket would crack 
and one of those old gators would clap his hand 
on his side and go out of sight with a splash. A 
number of dead gators with bullet holes in their 
bodies had floated ashore. Today we passed im- 
mense fields of grain, one corn field comprising 
1,400 acres; and also passed the smoking ruins of 
plantation houses more frequently. At 4 o'clock we 
got to Hard Times Landing, on the Mississippi river, 
opposite Grand Gulf and encamped for the night. 

The 11th until 4 o'clock we laid off waiting for 
ferryage across the river and while some 
went fishing, others spent the time in any 
amusement or recreation they chose, but at that 
hour a gunboat arrived and we fell in and went on 
board of gunboat I^ouisville and were ferried across 
to Grand Gulf, where we went into camp with our 
brigade at the foot of the high bluff. The camp was 
full of happy contrabands wiho patted juba and 
danced nearly all night to the music of a cane in- 
strument unlike any other musical instrument ] 
ever saw. 

At an early hour on the 12th we marched away 
over the hills for Rocky Springs. This country was 



SCENES ENROUTE 23 

rough and sterile and not nearly as productive as 
Louisiana. At the end of 18 miles we went into 
camp for the night in a beautiful grove on a hill 
close to a spring of pure, cold water. We killed 
some sheep and chickens for supper, but where 
they came from only the Lord and some of our boys 
knew. 

The 13th we continued our march through Rocky 
Springs, across Big and Little Sandy creeks, and 
through a vastly finer country than yesterday. We 
arrived at the town of Cayuga that night and made 
our quarters in a church, and when the church bell 
rang furiously about midnight, we were told No. 10 
wiainted the Corporal of the guard. 

The 14th we got a very early start but it soon 
began to rain and very soon we were wading in red 
sticky mud. We ate our dinner, well sheltered from 
the rain, in another country church, and at night 
we got quarters in a deserted plantation house. 
There we got supper and made our coffee in an old 
fashioned fireplace. We also, at least two of us, 
slept on a bedstead like white folks that night, but 
the bed bugs perforated us numerously. We were 
then 30 miles from Jackson and 14 miles from the 
advance of Grant's army. During the night the 
enemy molested our pickets and we got out to the 
tune of the long roll, but no blood was shed. 

The 15th we continued our march to Raymond, 
arriving there at 2 o'clock p. m. There we halted 
an hour and visited our wounded friends and ac- 
quaintances of the 20th Illinois, then at that point, 
who had been wounded that day in the battle of 



24 SCENES ENROUTE 

Raymond, after which we pushed on 8 miles farther 
to Clinton and made our camp in the college grounds 
on the hill. At Clinton we found and paroled a large 
number of rebel sick in hospitals. Our boys visited 
the sick and wounded rebels in these hospitals and 
gavie them crackers, tobiaicco anid coffee or any little 
delicacies they happened to have, the same as they 
would have treated their own comrades, and many a 
poor sick Johnnie's eyes grew moist in those rebel 
hospitals because of the kindness of the Yanks 
to them that day. 

The 16th we remained in camp at Clinton until 
noon, and then in compliance with orders, when 
Steel's division came through from Jackson, we fell 
into his line of march and marched away towards 
Boulton, and camped that night within a mile of that 
town. I desire to mention here that in the early 
morning today General Grant with a few mounted 
attendants went through Clinton at a rapid pace 
towards Black river or Champion Hills. 

The 17th we proceeded towards Black river with 
Steel's division, passed through Boulton at 10 a. m., 
and shoved so close to a body of the enemy that our 
commander threw us into line of battle with ambu- 
lances close on our heels and trains trailing in the 
rear. But a few scattering shots resulted, however, 
and we arrived at Black river at 7 p. m., and there 
rejoined our brigade. We crossed Black river on a 
pontoon bridge, proceeded 2 miles farther towards 
Vicksburg and camped in the woods by the roadside. 
Early the 18th we resumed our march for Vicks- 
burg, 24 miles away, and when within 4 miles of said 



SCENES ENROUTE 25 



city we rubbed against a rebel force, and in line of 
battle pushed them gently back to their works, be- 
hind which they disappeared. We then went into 
camp on one of the walnut hills behind our heavy 
picket line. And what a noisy night was that, my 
countrymen! The pickets on both sides kept up a 
steady fusilade throughout the night. I undertook 
to pool my blankets with our Major(Williams) that 
night, and we made our bed on the exposed slope 
of the hill. Hardly had we get cleverly stretched 
out for a snoose when a rebel bullet struck the 
co;ld cliamimy eairtlh jus't about three-fourthis' of an 
inch northeast of the lobe of my left ear. Some 
Mississippi soil was precipitated into my face there- 
by, I called the major's attention to the fact and 
proposed a change of base to the other slope of the 
hill about 10 rods away. The major made light of 
my proposition and said, "Lie still and go to sleep 
and you won't hear 'em strike." I waited a few 
minutes longer until a few more bullet chugs smote 
upon my ear, when I got up hastily and with my 
blanket went and lodged on the other slope of the 
hill. I'm no coward, but I didn't want to be acci- 
dentally killed without knowing something about it. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE CHARGE OF MAY 19 



ON the 18th of May, 1863, Vicksburg was complete- 
ly invested. A year before the first attempt 
was made against this fortified city, and in reply 
to a demand of surrender at that time the rebels 
said: "Mississippians did not know and refused to 
learn how to surrender to an enemy." Now we'uns 
had arrived and proposed to teach them how to sur- 
render to an enemy. 

Some time before daylight on the morning of the 
19th we were quietly aroused and instructed to pre- 
pare our breakfasts without noise or unnecessary 
fire or light. Every man of my company proceeded, 
by the aid of twigs and dry leaves, to make just 
fire enough on the protected slope of the hill, to 
boil his tin cup of coffee and broil a slice of dia- 
phragm um et swinum for the morning meal. We 
did not at first know what the program for the day 
was, but before we had dispatched our breakfast 
it was whispered to us by those who claimed to 
have access to headquarters that we were scheduled 
to charge the enemy's works in the early morning. 
I hadn't had a good view of the Vicksburg fortifica- 
tions the day before, and now in the first faint light 
of the morning, while the men were eating and mak- 



THE CHARGE OF MAY 19 



ing preparations for the charge, I crept cautiously 
out on the crest of the hill, and so far as I could 
without exposing myself, contemplated the defenses 
against which we had to charge. Three strong bas- 
tioned forts on the right, center and left on high 
grounds within a line of entrenchments and stock- 
ades confronted us. It required but a brief inspec- 
tion to satisfy me that more than likely we wouldn't 
go into town that day. I confess that my observa- 
tions did not in any great measure increase my con- 
fidence in our ability to take the place by assault. 
When I returned to my company I saw many of the 
boys entrusting their valuables with hasty instruc- 
tions to the few lame and sick ones, who must needs 
stay behind and care for the company effects while 
we were gone. I felt like turning over my stuff also, 
but happened to recollect I had no valuables. From 
the outlook I was satisfied very many of us would 
not answer to roll call that night, and I felt that I 
might be one of the silent ones. A more beautiful 
May morning than that of the 19th I had never seen. 
The pickets had ceased firing, the birds sang sweet- 
ly in the trees, and the cool morning breeze was 
fragrant with the perfume of flowers and shrubs. 
It was hard to believe that such a beautiful morn- 
ing as that would bring such an eve as followed it. 
When the sun was well up then the various bodies 
of our troops were quickly marched to their re- 
spective positions in what was to be the charging 
line. My regiment was marched forward and to the 
right of our night's position, to the base of the last 
range of the Walnut hills, and we were instructed 



28 THE CHARGE OF MAY 19 

then that when all of our batteries fired three volleys 
in rapid succession our whole assaulting column was 
to move forward and charge the enemy's works. The 
space intervening between our line and the enemy's 
fortification over which we must pass was badly 
cut up by ravines and hills and covered by brush 
and fallen trees. When the signal for the general 
assault came my regiment, the 113th Illinois, be- 
longing to Giles A. Smith's brigade of Blair's divi- 
sion and Sherman's army corps, was among the 
first to make a determined attack. While awaiting 
the signal to go in we had been practicing, over a 
big sycamore log behind which we were crouching, 
a few long range shots at the rebel stockade, but 
when the three rapid artillery discharges came we 
first stood up, then we scaled the log and pushed for- 
ward. On our immediate right was the 6th Missouri, 
and I being on the right of our regiment went in 
side by side with the men of their left. A lieutenant 
on the left of that regiment was in his shirt sleeves 
and wore a white shirt; he and I went side by side 
for several steps, when he lunged forward upon 
the ground, and in the quick glance I gave him I 
saw a circle of red forming on his shirt back. The 
leaden hail from the enemy was absolutely blinding. 
The very sticks and chips scattered over the ground 
were jumping under the hot shower of rebel bul- 
lets. As I now recall that experience I can but 
wonder that any of us survived that charge. The 
rough and brush strewn ground over which we had 
to charge broke up our alignment badly, and every 
soldier of our command had to pick his own way 



THE CHARGE OF MAY 19 29 

forward as best he could without regard to touch- 
ing elbows either to the right or left. 

When about two-thirds the way across the field I 
found myself with one corporal of my company con- 
siderably in advance of the rest of our men, and we 
two knelt down behind a fallen tree trunk to watch 
and wait their coming. When thus on our knees 
a canister shot entered the bottom of the corporal's 
shoe and lodged in hiis ankle joint, and while I 
was assisting my comrade in cutting off his shoe 
and prying out the bullet, most of our company 
passed by us. When I again stood up, I could see a 
fragment of our line only, to my left, with which I 
recognized our colonel and regimental colors. I 
started towards our flag, but had gone only a few 
steps when one of the enemy's shells exploded in 
front of me, and when the smoke had lifted a little 
I saw that our regimental flag and the colonel had 
gone down. From under the end of a log beneath 
where the shell had exploded rose up a comrade, 
Darrow by name, his red shock of hair powdered and 
plastered with the dust and dirt of the explosion 
and his eyes flashing with indignation. "Ain't it 
awful?" said I to Darrow, and the profane wretch 
replied indifferently, "They're shootin' damn care- 
less." 

I went on towards the enemy's works looking for 
the men of my company and when within half gun- 
shot of the rebel stockade, in a shallow gulley where 
the freshets had some time worn a little ditch, I 
found a squad of seventeen of my regiment hugging 
the ground and keeping up a steady fire on the rebel 



30 THE CHARGE OF MAY 19 

works. I lay down with them at the upper end of 
the line where the cover was the least, because it 
was the only place left for me, and I thought of 
the words of old French General Blucher, who was 
a veritable giant and always stuck up half his height 
above the entrenchments. Napoleon said to him one 
day when under fire, "Now, Blucher, you can afford 
to stoop a little?" Damn your bit of a ditch," said 
Blucher, "it ain't knee deep!" 

And there lying flat on our backs and loading 
our pieces in that position, with the merciless sun 
blistering our faces, we passed that day of dreadful 
fighting. Once during the day, when some of our forc- 
es made an advance demonstration off to our right, 
we saw the slender blue line advance for a distance 
and then, repulsed, retire, leaving the field thicklv 
strewn with the blue sheaves Old Death had gathered 
so quickly. Then a rehel battery was run up behind 
the enemy's work in omr front and enfiladed our lines. 
Then how gloriously our little squad did pepper that 
battery when they would run it up in sight. We si- 
lenced the battery, but by our careleis'sness we lost 
one of our number killed, shot in the center of 
the forehead, and five others wounded. Often that 
day the bullets from front and rear passed so closely 
above our prostrate bodies that the short cane stalks 
forming a pairt of our cover, were cut off by them 
and lopped gently over upon us. 

But we fared better than other regiments of our 
brigade. On our left Sherman's regiment, the 13th 
regulars, lost 77 out of a total of 250 men; their 
commander. Captain Washington, was mortally 



THE CHARGE OF MAY 19 31 

wounded and every other officer of the regiment 
more or less severely wounded. Also, the 83rd In- 
diana and the 127th Hlinois on our right suffered 
more than we, but such a long dreadful day it 
was without food or water, under the excessive heat 
of the sun, lying flat in that old gully, but hardly 
daring to move a limb or change our position for 
fear of attracting a rebel volley. As the sun sank in 
the west and we saw night approaching, our fears 
were excited for our safety. We well knew if we re- 
mained where we were until nightfall the enemy 
would sally out of their works and capture us, so 
we held a parley and agreed that at a given signal 
all of us who could would scatter and run for some 
near cover in the rear, where resting briefly we would 
run on to other covers still further to the rear, until 
the dusk of approaching night would finally shield us, 
and we carried out that program so faithfully that 
all who made the run escaped unscathed. My first 
sprint took me to an old dry sycamore stump a 
few rods away, behind which I threw myself just in 
time to escape being numerously punctured. When 
I got good and ready I ran again, and again, until 
I could no longer discern through the gathering 
shadows the long long line of rebel stockade behind 
me, and then I stopped and took one long breath — 
bigger than a pound of wool. Not one of my com- 
rades could I then see. They had scampered away 
like a bevy of partridges and were swallowed up in 
the gloom of night. When I was making my way 
rearward through a patch of cockleburs up the slope 
of the hill, I heard a wounded man groaning near- 



32 THE CHARGE OF MAY 19 



by, and I went to his assistance. He was shot 
through the leg above the knee, and I had to stop 
some of the incoming stragglers to assist me in tak- 
ing him back to the field hospital. When we got 
him down into the first ravine, he begged so piteously 
for water we laid him down and with my canteen I 
groped along in the darkness until I heard the trick- 
ling of a spring and managed to catch enough water 
to stay the poor fellow's thirst until we got him 
back to a surgeon. Then it was night, in the shad- 
ow of those great forest trees, of the blackest de- 
scription. None dare make a light or fire. In every 
direction could be heard soldiers calling for their 
comrades without responses. I didn't know where 
the headquarters of my regiment was, and I could 
find no one who could tell me. I wiais both thirsty 
and hungry. I was heartsick and tired. It was get- 
ting awfully cold. I sat down at the roots of an old 
forest tree and tried to sleep. All night long I heard 
the stretcher bearers bringing in the wounded, and 
T thought 1 would freeze before morning. 



CHAPTER III. 

SIIARPSHOOTIISG FROM 
WALNUT HILLS. 



WITH the first faint flush of day the morning 
of the 20th, I was up and taking soundings 
for the locality of my company headquarters. 
I was as stiff as an old foundered horse, and my head 
ached and felt swelled. The battle was still being 
waged by the advance pickets of the contending 
forces, but the fearful rumble of yesterday's battle 
had subsided entirely. Nothing appeared in that 
early morning, at first, to recall the horrors of yes- 
terday, but as the daylight began to pour in amongst 
the trees, and the mists of night lifted, some evidenc- 
es of the fray came into sight. The smoke that 
filled the heavens during that conflict had rolled 
together into one great windrow and hung away out 
on the rim of the horizon. The light breath of wind 
wafted from over the battlefield, it seemed to me, 
savored of blood. At the rear of the field hospital 
a score of legs and arms were stacked up awaiting 
burial and some blood stained stretchers laid where 
the tired stretcher bearers had carelessly abandoned 
them. The faithful surgeons had plied the knife, 
and worked on, ever since the assault began, and now 
at the dawn of another day were not nearly done. 
Old Sol was splashing his crimson and gold over 



34 SHARPSHOOTING FROM WALNUT HILLS 

tlie blue of the eastern concave when I finally found 
my company quarters, and the men were already 
blazing away at the enemy from the crest of the 
nearby hill. In the headquarters tent I found three 
delicious smoked hams, from which I at once carved 
three or four slices and ate them raw. From the 
lacerated appearance of those hams it was apparent 
that other famishing men had dined there before 
me. Think of making a meal on raw smoked ham 
and water. I hadn't a mouthful of bread or anything 
that would take the place of bread, not even slippery 
elm, to chuck in with that ham. We were hungry 
when we got to Vicksburg on the 18th, because we 
had been living on half rations and what we could 
cramp on the march ever since we left Grand Gulf. 
I had one last hardtack when I got to Vicksburg 
that I saved and carried for several days, and it 
looked like a medallion off a, prize cook stove. The 
luster arising from the sweat and grime on that 
hardtack was too dazzling for anything. The worms 
lurking within it came out occasionally and admired 
their refLectiioms mirrored up'0)n its surface. Men 
got very hungry on that march to the rear of Vicks- 
burg. It will be remembered that Grant cut loose 
from his base of supplies when he left Grand Gulf. 
I heard men say that they partially subsisted by 
chewing newspaper advertisements of provisions. 
Such a delicious breakfast as that raw ham I never 
ate biefoire mor since. I was niever more thankful 
for a meal. I blessed the hog that furnished the 
ham and the swain who salted and smoked it. 
My breakfast dispatched, I joined my company be- 



SHARPSHOOTING FROM WALNUT HILLS 35 

hind a slight breastwork on the crest of the hill, 
where we blazed away at the rebel stockade with 
little, if any, intermission all day long. Heavy ord- 
nance was brought into play as well as muskets, and 
gave and took solid shot and shell to our heart's 
content. All that day our army was hurrying up 
additional heavy ordnance onto the besieging line 
its whole extent, and each new piece, as it came up 
to its position joined its hoarse bark to the din of 
all our other war dogs. Such a jolly old racket 
it was to be sure! 

All day long the loopholes in the rebel stockade 
were spitefully spitting red fire in our faces, which 
fire we returned with a vengeance. We made a good 
deal of noise all that day and the next with very 
little execution, because both the enemy and our- 
sieU'ves were uoidter coveir. Some funny things hap- 
pened in those first days of the investment. When 
we arrived at the rear of Vicfcsburg on the after- 
noon of the 18th a picnic party of about thirty lad- 
ies, mostly rebel officers' wives, was intercepted and 
forbidden to return to the beleaguered city. They 
plead and threatened, tearfully, scornfully, imperti- 
nently, to effect their release, but all to no purpose. 
They were informed that the city was then besieg- 
ed, that the lid, as it- were, was on, that none could 
now go in but armied men, and none could 
come out but prisoners. What could they do 
but submit? We were 30,000 strong. They 
were three ciphers less. We outnumbered them by 
a crushing majority. General Grant ordered them 
to be quartered in a large furnished double house, 



36 SHARPSHOOTING FROM WALNUT HILLS 



which the owners had abandoned upon our coming, 
and there under a safety guard they drew their U. 
S. army rations from day to day during the forty- 
two days of the siege and raised Ned generally. 
An old discordant piano happened to be in their 
prison, and they pounded the poor old thing until 
it would bellow like the bull of Bashon. One day 
General Gria-nit aind atn adjutant geneTial rode up in 
front of the house, and while there upon their 
horses, one of the ladies, who was promenading 
backward and forward across the piazza, observing 
that Grant was smoking a cigar, said to him, "Sol- 
dier, give me a cigar." "With pleasure, madam, 
said the General, handing hier a weed. Adjutant 
General Robbins, understanding that the little lady 
was wholly unacquainted with the name or rank 
of the distinguished individual whom she was so 
flippantly addressing, said: "Madam, allow me to 
make you acquainted with General Grant, of the 
United States army." The poor frightened woman 
turned piaile, staTed wildly at the Genieral, dropped 
her cigar, and fled inside the house. As the offi- 
cers road away, about thirty noses were flattened 
against the windows as those beautiful captive-s 
peered fearfully out to catch a glance of that tp'-- 
rible General whom the south feared most "of aill." 
When the Waterhouse battery was throwing an 
occasional shot or shell against the stockade try- 
ing to effect a breach in it, a voice behind the en- 
emy's works would call out at every shot, "A little 
more to the right," or "A little more to the left," 
as the case might be, evidently trying to make light 



SHARPSHOOTING FROM WALNUT HILLS 37 



of our shooting. The battery officer thought he 
pretty nearly located the owner of the voice, and 
trained his gun for the next shot upon that point. 
After firing for several seconds nothing was heard, 
and just as we had about made up our minds the 
derisive cuss was killed he yelled, "For God's sake 
cease firing." He had evidently had a close call. 

On the night of May 21st we were informed that 
tomorrow morning we would again assault the 
works by the engagement of the whole line. It was 
arranged for the assault to take place at precisely 
10 o'clock on the morning of the 22nd. So deter- 
mined was Grant to have the attack by the various 
corps simultaneous that he had all of the corps 
commanders' watches set by his own. 

When we were formed in the line of assault 
and my company, B, 113th Illinois Volunteer infan- 
try, was at rest in place, an officer of Grant's staff 
came to us with the proposition that any three men 
who wiouild voilunteer to go in the stoirming party, 
then forming to be sent in advance against the en- 
emy's works, should have sixty days furlough home. 
We looked into each others facets for some seconds. 
We were speechless and felt a dread of what might 
develop. We knew that as a general thing the man 
who volunteers and goes into the storming party 
"leaves all hope behind." It means nearly sure 
death. Like the Irishman I didn't want to go "and 
leave my father an orphan." Finally there was a 
movement. Old Joe Smith, white headed, rough 
visaged and grizzled by the storms of a half cent- 
tury, stepped to the front and calling back to his 



38 SHARPSHOOTING FROM WALNUT HILLS 

bunkmate said, "Come on, Lish," and Elisha Johxis 
filed out by his side. Then after a brief interval 
Sergt. James Henry volunteered for the third place. 
Company B's quota was now complete, and those 
brave fellows hurried away to take their places in 
the ranks of the storming party. Some reader of 
these lines may ask, "Why didn't General Grant 
detail men for the storming party?" Because, when 
soldiers enter upon a service that gives them only 
one chance in a hundred to survive it, the comman- 
der doesn't like to bear the responsibility of their 
deaths, and tenders them the precious privilege of 
voluntarily dying for their country. We looked up- 
on our three comrades as already dead or wounded 
men, but strange to relate, although a majority 
of that gallant band fell in that action, not one of 
our brave fellows was injured by the missiles of the 
enemy, and all of them received from General 
Grant their furlough home as promised. 

This storming party, provided with boards and 
rails to bridge the ditch outside the stockade when 
they got to it, led the advance or attacking column. 
And while we stood in line breathlessly awaiting 
the order to move forward ourselves, I watched 
that little force of 150 men rush forward towards 
the battlements of the enemy. How they scurried 
forward, leaping over the logs and brush lying 
in their pathway as they pushed on through that 
leaden and iron hail of death! A scattering few 
seemed to reach the salient of the bastion and laid 
down against their works in time to preserve their 
lives, but as it appeared to me through the clouds 



SHARPSHOOTING PROM WALNUT HILLS 39 



of sulphurous smoke a greater part of the blue 
forms were scattered along their line of advance 
stretched upon the earth motionless in death. • It 
had come our turn now to face the lead, and we 
were ordered to fix bayonets. 




\ 



N. 



CHAPTER IV. 



CHARGE OF MAY 22D. 



WHILE waiting the charge of the storming par- 
ty and watching their progress across the 
field to the enemy's works, I noticed a group 
of general officers close to our left, composed of 
Grant, Sherman and Giles A. Smith, with their 
field glasses, watching the little storming party 
painting a trail of blood across that field. Those 
distinguished commanders, unlike ourselves, were 
standing behind large trees, and squinted cautiously 
out to the right and left, exposing as little of their 
brass buttons as possible, and I think I saw them 
dodge a couple of times. I thought of the con- 
vincing speech the officer made to his command 
on the eve of the battle, when he assured them that 
he might be killed himself, as some balls would 
go through the biggest trees. 

General Ewing's brigade led the assault after 
the storming party had sped their bolts, and ad- 
vanced along the crown of an interior ridge which 
partially sheltered his advance. This command ac- 
tually entered the parapet of the enemy's works 
at a shoulder of the bastion, but when the enemy 
rose up in double ranks and delivered its withering 
fire his forces were swept back to cover, but the 
brave and resourceful old Ewing shifted his com- 



CHARGE OF MAY 22D 41 

mand to the left, crosisied the ditch, pressed forward, 
and ere long we saw his men scrambling up the out- 
er face of the bastion and his colors planted near 
the top of the rebel works. 

Our brigade was formed in a ravine threatening 
the parapet, 300 yards to the left of the bastion, and we 
had connected with Ranisom's brigade. Prom 
that formation we fixed bayonets and charged point 
blank for the rebel works at a double quick. Un- 
fortuniately for me I was in^ the front of the rank and 
compelled to maintain that position, and a glance 
at the forest of gleaming bayonets sweeping up from 
the rear, at a charge, made me realize that it only 
required a stumble of some lubber just behind me 
to launch his bayonet into the offside of my anat- 
omy, somewhere in the neighborhood of my anterior 
suspender buttons. This knowledge so stimulated 
me that I feared the front far less than the rear, 
and forged ahead like an antelope, easily changing 
my double quick to a quadruple gait, and most em- 
phatically making telegraph time. During that run 
and rush I had frequently to either step upon or jump 
over the bodies of our dead and wounded, which were 
scattered along our track. The nearer the enemy we 
got the more enthusiastic we became, and the more 
confidence we had in scaling their works, but as 
we neared their parapet we. encountered the re- 
served fire of the rebels which swept us back to 
temporary cover of a ridge, two-thirds of the way 
across the field, from which position we operated 
the rest of the day. When we got back there we 
had been fighting and maneuvering for more than 



42 CHARGE OF MAY 22D. 



three hours. Once during the assault I remember 
the 116th Illinois was on our left. Gen. Giles A. 
Smith was between me and that regiment; Colonel 
Tuppeir, iits commianider, wais niiaking a speech to his 
men and advising them to take the works or die 
in the attempt. I thought then, and I have had no 
reason to change my mind since, that Tupper was 
gloriously drunk. General Smith snatched off his 
hat and yelled, "Three cheers for Colonel Tupper." 
I caught off my cap and together we gave one full 
grown "Hurrah" and about half another, when the 
explosion of a monster shell inconveniently near us 
adjourned the performance sine die. I saw also 
at another time during the fight, a captain coming 
back from the front on the run; he had been wound- 
ed in thie wrlsit. A man was trying to lead him off 
the field, but couldn't keep up with the fleet footed 
captain. He was vainly trying to clutch the wound- 
ed man's coat tails as he pursued him, and though 
under a deadly fire at the time, more than a hund- 
red of us who beheld the race, laughed heartily. 
When we got behind the ridge we were ordered to 
lie down, and it felt good to know that we had even 
a little ridge of solid earth between us and the ene- 
my's bullets. We lay there on our backs and look- 
ed back into the throats of the artillery as it shell- 
ed the enemy's works over our heads. We could 
see the balls distinctly as they were discharged 
from the cannons, and they looked like bumble-bees 
flying over us, only somewhat larger. While we 
were thus watching the flight of the balls, one of 
them struck and cut off the top of a tall sapling 



CHARGE OF MAY 22D 43 



standing between us and the cannon; the ball by 
that means was depressed, and instead of going 
over us came directly for us and into our midst. 
Every one who saw it thought, as I did, that the 
ball was coming straight at him. 1 rolled over to 
avoid it; I heard the dull thud of its striking and a 
scream of agony, and I stood up and looked. That 
ball had struck and carried away the life of Morris 
Bird, a private of Company H, and the only son ci 
a widowed mother. I saw a private of the 4th Vir- 
ginia, which regiment was sheltered there with uy 
also, rise to his feet to fire his gun, when one 
of our cannon balls took off his head, and it was 
a clean decapitation, too. The enemy shelled us in- 
cessantly the rest of the day after we gained this 
position, and it cost us many brave men. 

One close call of an exploding shell knocked 
me senseless and took off the right arm of Louis 
Cazean, a private of my company. They told me af- 
terwards that poor Cazean, when he lifted up the 
fragments of his shattered right arm dangling from 
the white cords and tendons, said, "Boys, I'd give 
five hundred dollars if that was my left arm instead 
of my right." When I regained my senses I found 
Sergeant Whitcomb of my company bathing my head 
with water and trying to force some commissary 
whiskey down my throat. He didn't have near as 
much trouble getting the whiskey down me after 
I came to and found out what it was. For a long 
time the rumbling in my head was deafening and 
painful, but gradually subsided and the concussion 
left me a whole skin and with no deleterious effects. 



44 CHARGE OF MAY 22D. 



And the day wore on until night closed in upon 
us, and then we lay down and slept on our arms 
accoutered as we were. 

Through some bungling, when the other regi- 
ments were ordered to retire during the night to 
the rear of the Walnut hills, my regiment was 
omitted from the list, and when we received our 
order to fall back in the morning we had to go out 
under the fire of the 25,000 enemies. That blunder 
cost us some brave men; for the rebels availed 
themselves of the splendid opportunity to fire upon 
our retiring lines. We had failed to take Vicksburg 
by assault, notwithstanding the bravery of our men; 
notwithstanding that many stands of colors were 
planted on the enemy's works; Sergeant Griffith 
with eleven men of the 22nd Iowa regiment enter- 
ed a fort of the enemy, and his men all fell in the 
fort except the sergeant, who captured and brought 
off thirteen confederate prisoners, and Captain 
White of the Chicago Mercantile battery immortal- 
ized himself by carrying forward one of his guns 
by hand to the ditch, and double shotting it, fired 
into an embrasure of the work, disabling an en- 
emy's gun in it and cutting down the gunners. 

The rebels had more than 25,000 men behind 
their works, and why they didn't kill every soul 
of us I cannot imagine. How glad we were to 
get back of the Walnut hills on the 23rd, and to go 
into camp with the assurance that no more assault- 
ing efforts would probably be required of us. When 
we sat around the campfire down in the ravine that 
night we compared notes of experiences during that 



CHARGE OF MAY 22D 45 



bloody battle and talked about our dead and 
wounded comrades. Old Joe Smith, who was one of 
the storming party volunteers, said, "Boys, I had 
sweet revenge on the brutes yesterday. I got right 
into the crotch of a fallen tree close to their works, 
so that I was protected in front and on both flanks, 
and I laid my gun acroiss the log so that I had con- 
stant aim on their works, and when one of them 
fellers got up to shoot I would see his gun barrel 
come up first, and I would have a dead liner on him 
when his head popped up and I could salt him ev- 
ery time, pretty near." "But," said Joe, "there was 
one feller kept gitting up right opposite me and 
his face was so dumbed thin I couldn't hit 'im." 
After supper we were detailed to dig rifle pits, and 
had talks with rebels across the bloody chasm. 



CHAPTER V. 



IN THE RIFLE PITS 



WE failed to take Vicksburg by assault. We 
not only failed to take it, but we failed to 
break their lines of defense and make per- 
manent lodgment anywhere along our front, Gen- 
eral McClernand to the contrary notwithstanding. 
For ten hours that day we fought the entrenched 
enemy and had not won the battle. Our forces had 
charged the parapets and bastioned forts valorously 
but death was the sole reward of their great valor. 
We lost 3,000 men while the sheltered confederates, 
within their formidabLe works lost only 1,0'0'0. I desire 
to add that Admiral Porter co-operated In the 
assault, and shelled the water batteries and town 
from his mortar boats stationed in the river, and 
from his gun boats. So fierce was hiisi attack cm 
the water batteries, which were engaged at 440 
yards, and so great was the noise of his gun and 
so dense the smoke that Porter heard and saw noth- 
ing of our land operations. 

We were quartered along one of the Walnut 
hillsides after the assault of the 22nd, and we went 
industriously to work fitting up our huts and bow- 
ers in the best sheltered and most available spots 
along the hill slope. I put in a half day of solid 
work building me a cane palace which, when I had 



IN THE RIFLE PITS 47 



it enclosied. and nearly finished, was instantan- 
eously wrecked by a piece of rebel shell which an 
overhead explosion precipitated into the top of my 
beauitiful entclosure ripping it downwards and 
wrecking it completely. I took up what was left 
of my bedding and belongings and built in a safer 
locality. 

On the 24th my company was detailed for pick- 
et duty, and we occupied the advance rifle pits al- 
ready dug, and industriously dug others in advance 
of those, under cover of the night. That night my- 
self and comrade went without orders onto the bat- 
tle field, armed only with spades, and buried three 
of our dead comrades who were killed in the assault 
of the 19th. It was a dangerous business, and onlv 
the intense darkness protected us from the enemy. 
We could only bury them by throwing dirt upon 
the bodies just as they lay upon the ground. Five 
days of exposure to the heat and sun had produced in 
those bodies a fearful state of decomposition, and 
the stench was dreadful, but we accomplished our 
task after a fashion. After the surrender of Vicks^- 
burg I went to the spot and beheld the partially 
covered bodies of our comrades which we had tried 
to bury in the darkness that night. Both feet and 
heads were bare then. Whether we had so left 
them, or whether the rains and winds had partially 
resurrected them I could not tell. I never took part 
in that kind of a job again. It was too dangerous, 
for when we returned to our lines it was so dark we 
could not determine the point where our men were, 
and caused an alarm by coming out at the wrong 



48 IN THE RIFLE PITS 

place. We were challenged and came near getting 
shot at. 

On the morning of the 25th the rebels sent out 
a flag of truce and asked permission to bury their 
dead, which was granted. Squads from both armies 
were sent out, and for at least two hours the work 
of burying the dead went on. The dead were bur- 
ied by simply throwing earth onto the bodies where 
they had fallen. I walked out onto the battle 
grounds and observed the victims lying scattered 
over the field as far as the sight could reach. The 
bodies were bloated and swollen to the stature of 
giants. I saw some few men ripping open the 
pockets of the dead with their jackknives and tak- 
ing therefrom watches, money and other valuable 
things, reeking with putrifaction, and transferring 
them to their own pockets. I picked up a photo- 
graph or tintype of a woman and two children 
which some soldier had lost, aid I also found a 
splendid Springfield rifle which I appropriated and 
carried to camp. When it was dark enough that 
night to safely do so we were relieved from ad- 
vance duty by other troops when we returned to 
camp. 

Today, May 26th, it was rumored in camp that 
rebel General Johnson was approaching with a big 
force to relieve Vicksburg, and that a large force 
of the besiegers had gone out to meet him. What- 
ever excitement the rumor caused was allayed by 
the arrival of the northern mail. All the time our 
artillery, wow siaid to comprise 1,300 gumsi, kept 
thundering away at Vicksburg. 



IN THE RIFLE PITS 49 



On the morning of the 29th my regiment was 
sent out to the Chickasaw Bayou to get some big 
cannon. We found on arriving at the bayou four 
32 poiunid' piairirotits on 'the oppiosite sldie, which we 
proceeded by means of ropes to pull across on tem- 
porary pontoon bridges. Although we supplement- 
ed the strength of the bridges with thick plank 
laid lengthwise, and pulled the guns across on the 
run, still their immense weight broke almost ev- 
ery plank in the bridges as we snaked them acrois?. 
Had we allowed one of them to stop a second mid- 
way on the bridge it would have crushed through 
and gone to the bottom of the bayou. We got 
the guns onto the firing line, as the darkeys would 
say, "just in the shank of the evenin'." We sup- 
plied large detail each night for digging rifle pits 
for the first few days, and then on alternate nights. 
Each tier of rifle pits brought the contending forces 
cloiser together, so they could easily converse with 
each other, and until prohibited by a general order, 
the soldiers of the blue often met. the gray between 
the lines and swapped knives, buttons, papers and 
tobacco in a most cordial and friendly way. One 
day by mutual verbal agreement the rebel company 
and union company opposite each other in the rifle 
pits stacked arms and met in a good social way. 
Pat, a union soldier was acting as guard of the 
stacks of guns. All at once Pat laid down his gun. 
snatched up a spade and sent it flying into the rebel 
rifle pits. "What are you throwing that spade for, 
Pat?" said our Lieutenant. "Because," said 
Pat, "One of thim grayback divils hit me with a 



50 IN THE RIFLE PITS 



clod." Night after night during the forty-two days 
of that siege we furnished details to dig in the rifle 
pits, until our lines of rifle pits got so close to 
the enemy's that the dirt we cast out with our 
spades was mingled with that cast out of their pits. 
Many a night when it was so dark the rebel sharp- 
shooters could not discern me, have I gone out be- 
tween the lines and there perched on a stump, lis- 
tened to the remarks freely indulged in by both 
Yank and Johnnie. At that time we were sapping 
and mining digging under their forts and blowing 
them up. On the 28th of June we blew up a fort 
opposite McPherson's center to the left of the Jack- 
son road. The explosion threw down part of the 
fort and threw up a good deal of the other half. 
A negro was lifted gently from that fort by that 
explosion over into a line of rifle pits occupied by 
our troops. The boys picked up the frightened 
darkey and some one said, "Where did you come 
from?" "Dat fort over dar," he said. "Was a good 
many blown up?" was asked him. "'Spec' dar was, 
maissa," he said, "I met a good many goin up w'en 
I was comin' down." One night I heard a rebel 
from their pits say to our men, "Say, Yanks, what 
you'uns digging thiait big ditch fosr?" referring to the 
sappers and miners zigzag ditch by which they ap- 
proached and blew up the rebel fort. A voice an- 
swering from our pits said, "We intend to flood it 
and to run our gunboats up that ditch and sheU 
h — 1 out of your old town. One night a voice said, 
"Is any of the boys of the 6th Missouri in the rifle 
pits over there?" "There's lots of 'em," was the 



IN THE RIFLE PITS 51 



answer. "Is Tom Jones there?" "He is," said our 
man, "Is that you Jim?" "Yes," came the answer, 
"and say Tom, can't you meet me between the lines? 
I've got a roll of greenbacks and I want to send 
them to the old folks in Missouri?" And iso Yank 
Tom went out and met Rebel Jim, his brother, got 
the greenbacks, and after a brief visit returned safe- 
ly to our picket quarters. 

And every night during the continuance of that 
long siege our numerous mortar boats down on the 
Mississippi tossed their cargoes of bombshelte into 
the beleaguered city. When we watched them at 
night we first heard the distant thunder of the dis- 
charged mortar, and soon after saw the ponderous 
bomb mounting up into the sky, spinning out its 
fiery web along its wild track from its first appear- 
ance until it stood still for a second, then graceful- 
ly curved downward and dropped swiftly down, 
down into the doomed city, then as you listened, 
after a breath came the jarring report of its ex- 
plosion. A detail of two men was made from my 
company one day to work on a mortar boat, and 
assisted in the work of firing the mortar. After 
charging the mortar they said all hands got into 
a skiff and rowed away, where they awaited at a safe 
distance until the gun was discharged by a time fuse 
cr slow match, and then returned to reload. One of 
our men so detailed thoughtlessly laid his coat down 
in one corner of the mortar boat, where it lay all 
through the day, and when he picked it up at night 
it was a mass of ribbons and shreds, absolutely torn 



52 IN THE RIFLE PITS 



to pieces by the concussion of tliose fearful dis- 
charges. 

As the siege progresses all sorts of rumors get 
afloat in camp. One is that the Vicksburg people 
are reduced to eating mule meat. I would have 
kicked when it came to that. Also that Johnson was 
coming with 5 0,000 men to raise the siege. But 
the rumors made no difference; our 1300 cannon 
kept pounding away, and we dug rifle pits contin- 
ually. 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE CLOSING SCENES 



IT was stated that within a week after the invest- 
ment of Vickshurg, its garrison was reduced to 
14% ounces of food for each man a day. And 
the rebel commander declared he would hold the 
town until the last dog was eaten. I guess Pem- 
berton kept his word, for after their surrender I 
don't remember of seeing a single dog in the city 
of Vicksburg. How the tables were turned on poor 
Fido to be sure — that the biter should not only be 
bittetn but eaiten. A lieutenant on the 6tli Miisisouri 
who had been taken a prisoner during the assault of 
the 19th, on June 5 was paroled by the rebs and re- 
turned to us. He said the living over there when he 
left was anything but invigorating; that good juicy 
mule cutlets were eagerly sought for by the elite 
of the city and brought fabulous prices; the tomcat- 
weinerwurst was a luxury there that was seldom 
enjoyed by the best families; that the squad in which 
he was quartered while a prisoner on the day before 
his parole had boiled victuals composed of a pair of 
gumboots for meat, some croquet balls for potatoes 
and an old gre'en umbreTla cover for greens; said he 
didn't enjoy those extra dishes at all; and preferred 
just common faire only. We ,usied to twit the Johnnies 
with eating mule meat in some of our games of black- 



54 THE CLOSING SCENES 



guard with them in the rifle pits, but until the sur- 
render we didn't know we had been twitting upon 
facts. We had the advantage of the rebel garrison 
in many ways because we were sheltered from the 
blistering heat of the sun by the forest shade, and 
had plenty to eat and the cool springs in the 
ravimeis furnisOied us an abundance of pure w^ait- 
ter, while the enemy was wholly unsheltered in their 
defensive works, reduced to almost starvation ra- 
tions and a scarcity of good water. One day we 
captured a Johnnie skulking down in the ravine 
with a dozen canteens over his shoulder after w^ater 
for himself and comrades. 

The prices of foodstuffs in Vicksburg before 
the end of that siege were awful; flour was $1,000 
a barrel; meal, $140 a bushel; beef, $250 a pound, 
and everything else in proportion. It is a wonder 
that poor people managed to eat at all. All the 
whiilie the belieiaguered garrision was susitaimed in 
their hardships and privations by the belief that 
Johnson would surely come to their relief, which 
belief was doomed to disappointment and sadly 
misplaced. Though 'tis stated upon good authority, 
that Johnson did finally march towards the Big 
Black and actually dispatched a messenger to 
Pemberton on the night of July 3rd notifying him 
that he was then ready to make a diversion to enable 
him to cut his way out. Before the messenger got 
there Vicksburg had been surrendered. The days of 
this long siege were kept from becoming monotonous 
by a hundred and one duties we had to perform, 
and innumerable exciting incidents that daily hap- 



THE CLOSING SCENES 55 

pened. All the time the firing was continuous on 
our side, and almost so on the part of the enemy. 
Every minute, almost, a tick-a-ka-tick of minie bul- 
lets was registered by the twigs and leaves above 
and around us. Miany of our boys were killed or 
wounded in their bowers and beds by the stray bul- 
lets. Referring to my journal, I find June 4, a man 
of the 6th Missouri shot while lying in his bed; June 
10, two of our men wounded at night in bed by 
stray bullets; June 11, heavy picket firing, men 
continually getting wounded in camp by stray bul- 
lets; June 13, a man of Company A shot in rifle 
pits, died while bringing him into camp; June 14, 
three men wounded in camp; June 15, today walk- 
ing with my comrade, John Gubtail, over the crest 
of a. hill, suddenly fell prostrate at my feet. I 
thought he was trying to act funny, but he got up in 
a few minutes and showed me a bullet hole through 
his cap and a shallow furrow across his scalp 
Where the bulleit had ploughed:. The rebel sharpshoot- 
eir hiaid just missed his target partially. We wont 
down to lower ground then. 

One day Mrs. Hoge, of sanitary fame, and the 
mother of the colonel of my regiment, came into our 
camp and after getting all the soldiers of my regiment 
there not on duty, assembled for an audience, she 
made a stirring speech. Among other things she 
said, "Before you left Chicago we ladies presented 
your regiment with a flag, and your colonel when 
he received that flag pledged himself that it should 
ever be defended, and sustained with honor. What 
has become of that flag? I desire to see how well 



56 THE CLOSING SCENES 

you have kept that promise." The color sergeant 
brought it to her. Said she, "There are suspicious 
looking holes and rents in this flag. How is that?* 
"That flag," said the color bearer proudly, "has 
been many times carried in the front when we went 
across the edge of battle, and those marks were made 
by bullets and fragments of shell, and madam, 
two men who carried it before me, fell with it in 
their hands, and both are dead from the effects 
of their wounds." "Enough," said the old lady, "You 
have redeemed your pledge, and I will tell the wo- 
men of Chicago who presented that flag to you, 
when I go back, how nobly your pledge has been 
redeemed." Then she asked some of us who knew 
the song, to come forward and sing with her "The 
Star Spangled Banner." I was one who with oth- 
ers thus volunteered, and amid the thunder of ar- 
tillery firing and the click of minie bullets over 
our heads we sang that song with Mrs. Hoge, as 
she held the flag in her arms. 

One day when we had our men out in the rifle 
pits at the extreme front we saw a union flag lying 
in a slight ravine a little ways in front of our rifle 
pits, which had been abandoned by some regiment 
in one of the charges, and at the risk of his life 
one of our boys crawled out and brought in the 
flag. It proved to be thei iregimental colors of the 4itlh' 
Virginia, and when we were relieved from duty we 
marched up to the colonel's^ tent of the 4th Virgihia*' 
and called him out, and I with a few simple, and I 
thought well chosen remarks restored the lost colors 
of his regiment to him and wound up by saying, "Take 



THE CLOSING SCENES 57 

biajck your flag colon©!, and next time wiien you are in 
battle h\sm)g on to it." He took the flag spitefulily from 
mie, turning very red in the fade, said nothing about 
setting up the cigars or drinks and without thanking 
us even, vanished into the bowels of his tent. We boys 
were all mad, and if we had known how he was going 
to act we would have left the flag out there on the 
battlefield where they had abandoned it. I thought 
afterwards, that perhaps my presentation speecii 
wasn't just to his taste. 

On June 20th my regiment was changed in the 
line to the mouth of the Yazoo river on the banks 
of the Chickasaw Bayou. We established our new 
camp at that point, little thinking at the time what 
an unfortunate move it was for us. In the forma- 
tion of these new quarters my tent position came 
down close to the waters of the stagnant bayori, 
and when I was driving stakes for my new home, a 
great green headed alligator poked his nozzle above 
the surface of the bayou waters and smiled at me. 
Upon examination of the ground along the bayou 
shore, I discovered alligator tracks where they had 
waltzed around under the beautiful light of the 
moon upon a very recent occasion, so I built my 
bunk high enough to enable me to roost out of 
reach of those hideous creatures at night. 

Though I had built high enough to escape the 
prowling alligators I had not built high enough to 
get abovie the deadily mialiaria disitilLed by tlh-at can- 
tankerous bayou. We soon learned what a loss we 
had sustained in exchanging the pure cold springs 
of the Walnut hills for the poisonous waters of ou'^ 



58 THE CLOSING SCENES 

new vicinity. At first the blue waters of the Yazoo 
fooled us. It was as blue and clear as lake water, 
and wie drank copiously of it, but felt badly after- 
wards. We didn't know we were drinking poisoned 
water until an old colored citizen one day warned 
us. Then we looked the matter up, and found that 
the interpretation of the word Yazoo was "The river 
of death," and that its beautiful blue waters were the 
drainings of vast swamps and swails. We learned 
too late, however, for the safety of our men, and lost 
in thie next few weeks nearly half of our regimeint 
from miailiairilall oir swamip fevers. In the meanitimie 
Vicksiburg wais starving. 




CHAPTER VII. 



SURRENDER OF VICKSBURG. 



MEANWHILE the siege was prosecuted with 
vigor; no let up. Night and day the steady 
pounding of the artillery went on, and the 
bomb shells sailed up in flocks from the mortar 
fleet on the Mississippi. General Grant daily watch- 
ed and directed the work of his mighty army, and 
knew the great fortress was surely crumbling. Of- 
ten during those long hot days of June, I saw 
General Grant, perhaps attended by one or two or- 
derlies, worming his quiet way through and along 
our trenches, carefully noting all the operations 
of our forces. None but those who personally knew 
him would have recognized in that stubby form, 
with its dusty blue blouse, the great General whose 
mighty genius was running the whole job. Our 
forces had erected in our lines a skeleton framed ob- 
servatory, which those properly authorized and who 
knew how to safely mount it often ascended, and 
with their field glasses made observations of the 
enemy's works. In order to keep the common sol- 
diers) aimd citizems from geititing shot by the enemy's 
sharpshooters, a guard was stationed at its base 
to warn and compel people to keep down, but there 
was so little for this guard to do that he got careless. 
One day in tihie midist of hiis car ©less nesis and imat- 



60 SURRENDER OF VICKSBURG 

tention he happened to look up at the observatory, 
and there at the very top stood a soldier. The guard 
was mad, and loudly and profanely commanded the 
intruder to come down. He said, "What you doing 
up there" No answer. "You come down out of thai, 
you fool; you'll get shot." No answer. "If you 
don't come down, I'll shoot you myself." Then the 
soldier slowly and deliberately descended to the 
ground, pretty vigorously cursed by the guard ani 
relegated to the fiery regions, as he descended, and 
ais thie supp'oisied tresipaisseir when Tie reached tihie 
ground!, sitarted away, a comiraide said to the guaird', 
"Yiou've played thunder, I must say." What bave I 
doniei?" said thie othier. "You've been cussing Geneirall 
Gra/nt bliack and blue.' "You dionit say," said the friglit- 
ened guard, "I didn't know it was him. I will apolo- 
gize and he ran after and caught up with the Gen- 
eral and said, "I hope you will pardon what I said, 
General. I didn't know you." "All right, my boy," 
said Grant, "but you must watch closely or some one 
will get shot there." 

When our division commander, Frank P. Blair, 
went along our lines, unlike Grant, he was usually 
attended by his whole staff and an escort of hun- 
dreds of cavalry, and the dust they kicked up en- 
shrouded half of Vicksburg. 

As soon as July 1st we began to hear rumors 
of preparations in progress to assault the rebel 
works again on the 4th of July, if the place was 
not sooner surrendered. There was no denying 
the fact, Joe Johnson had a tremendous big force 
in our rear and might actually take a notion to 



SURRENDER OF VICKSBURG 61 

attack us, and the boys were getting tired of digging 
rifte piifcsi. Wie hiad allll weilcomed ibhe rumoir of an- 
other contemplated assault on the 4th, but General 
Pemberton himself forestalled our calculations. 
Early on the 3rd the rebels sent a white flag out- 
side of their works and the rebel General Bowen 
bore it to our lines. The news spread through our 
miidisit like wilid tire, lamid wie had little doubt it hiad 
something to do with the surrender of the post. 
The bearer of this flag of truce was the bearer of 
a letter from Pemberton directed to General Grant, 
in which he proposed the appointment of three 
commissioners by him to meet a like number from 
Grant to arrange terms for the capitulation of Vicks- 
burg. 

General Grant wrote an answer to Pemberton, 
in which he offered to meet him^ between the lines 
to arrange such terms, but declined the appointment 
of commissioners as Pemberton proposed. We, who 
occupied our advance rifle pits, climbed up on the 
edges and while we dangled our feet down in the 
holes sat up straight and looked the Johnnies 
square in their faces as they popped up above their 
works. It all looked and seemed so funny to see 
the widespread resurrection of both Yanks and 
rebs. In many places the opposing lines of pits 
were so close together that conversation was carried 
on between us and the foemen during the armistice. 
An old grizzly reb straightened up out of a nearby 
pit. He sported long, gray Billy goat whiskers 
and his shaggy eyebrows looked like patches of 
hedge rows. Just opposite him on our side another 



62 SURRENDER OF VICKSBURG 



old graybeard stood up in his pit and the two old 
warriors surveyed each other for several minutes; 
then old Johnnie said, "Hello, you over thar!' 
"Hello yourself," said old Yank. "Is that your hole 
your stan'nen in over thar?" said Johnnie. "I reck- 
on," said Yank. "Wal, don't you know Mister, I've 
had some tarned good shots at you?" "I reckon,'' 
said Yank, "but s'pose ye hain't noticed no lead 
slung over thar nor nothin'?" "Yes," said Johnnie, 
"you spattered some dirt in my eyes now 'n' then." 
"So'd you mine," said Yank. And in that strain 
those two old veterans talked aand laughed from 
their respective roosts as though trying to shoot 
each other was the funniest thing in the world. 
About 3 o'clock that afternoon we saw some Union 
officers go out of our lines and part way over to 
the rebel works sit down under a tree on the grass. 
We afterwards learned those men were Grant, 
Rowlins, Logan, McPherson and A. J. Smith. A shore 
time afterwards some men in gray uniform came out 
of the rebel works an'd met our men Uinder the 
tree. Those men were Pemberton, Bowen and a 
staff officer, we also learned afterward. I was so 
far from them that I could not discern their features 
and could hardly tell their uniforms, but I watched 
as did thousands of our men with intense interest 
that long parleying, under that distant tree, until 
the conference broke up and the parties returned 
to their respective commands. That night we knew 
the city had virtually capitulated and only 
awaited the settlement of terms. 

On the 4th of July at 10 o'clock a. m. the Con- 



SURRENDER OF VICKSBURG 63 



federate forces marched out in front of their works, 
stacked their arms, hung upon them all accouter- 
ments and laid their faded flags on top of all. It 
was one of the saddest sights I ever beheld, and i 
can honestly say I pitied those brave men from the 
bottom of my heart. Our brave fellows, though, 
never uttered a shout of exultation during the whole 
ceremony of surrender. We marched into the cicy 
afterwards that day, raised the flag upon the court 
house and gave ourselves a general airing in Vicks- 
burg. As our forces marched through the town the 
rebel women scowled, made faces and spit at us, 
but we survived it all and kept good natured. One 
fat old colored woman was just jumping up and 
down for joy, and she cried out as we marched by, 
"Heah day come. Heah day is. Jes' you look at 'em, 
none your little yaller faced sickly fellers, but full 
grown men, wid blood in 'em," etc., etc. I saw 
many Union men and Confederates walking and con- 
versing together, but the rebel officers generally held 
aloof and acted as though they were miffed at some- 
thing. 

There were surrendered in men that day 15 
generals, 31,000 soldiers, 172 cannon. 

After the surrender I went over their works 
and fields. I saw the great holes in the ground 
where our bomb shells had exploded, big enough 
to contain a two-story building, I saw oaves 
in the hillsides where people had lived during 
the siege. I saw the ground in places so littered 
with shot and unexploded shells from our batteries 
that it was difficult to walk without stepping on 



64 SURRENDER OF VICKSBURG 

them. I saw the trees, many of them, actually 
girdled by our shot. I picked up one little shell 
and thought I would take it home with me as a 
relic. It looked like a mammoth butterfly egg, but 
it was heavy and had a sinister complexion. Many 
of our men were injured by those shells, in picking 
them up and dropping them carelessly onto their 
percussion points, and so I improved the opportunity 
one day to give mine to a relic hunter. After the 
surrender my regiment was moved from the mouth 
of the Yazoo up onto the Vicksburg hill, but we fail- 
ed to recover our health. Our men were dying diaily, 
and finally we were ordered to Corinth, Mississip- 
pi July 29th, and embarked on transport "Silver 
Wave" for our new destination, the well men in 
the regiment not being sufficient and able to care 
for the sick. 

THE END. 




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